diff --git a/compose.yaml b/compose.yaml
index 089de88..6bf9ace 100644
--- a/compose.yaml
+++ b/compose.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 x-app-environment: &app-environment
+  DEPLOYMENT_ENV: ${DEPLOYMENT_ENV:?Set DEPLOYMENT_ENV in .env}
   APP_ROLE: web
   DATABASE_URL: ${DATABASE_URL:?Set DATABASE_URL in .env}
   DATABASE_SOCKET_DIR: ${DATABASE_SOCKET_DIR:-}
diff --git a/config/config.exs b/config/config.exs
index 6e90caa..4c3c009 100644
--- a/config/config.exs
+++ b/config/config.exs
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ config :who_need_help, :scopes,
   ]
 
 config :who_need_help,
+  deployment_env: :development,
   ecto_repos: [WhoNeedHelp.Repo],
   generators: [timestamp_type: :utc_datetime, binary_id: true],
   app_role: :web,
diff --git a/config/runtime.exs b/config/runtime.exs
index 3394d9b..239a4e0 100644
--- a/config/runtime.exs
+++ b/config/runtime.exs
@@ -1,5 +1,20 @@
 import Config
 
+deployment_env =
+  case System.get_env("DEPLOYMENT_ENV", "development") do
+    "development" ->
+      :development
+
+    "test" ->
+      :test
+
+    "production" ->
+      :production
+
+    other ->
+      raise "DEPLOYMENT_ENV must be development, test, or production; got #{inspect(other)}"
+  end
+
 app_role =
   case System.get_env("APP_ROLE", "web") do
     "web" -> :web
@@ -46,6 +61,7 @@ rate_limit_policies =
   end
 
 config :who_need_help,
+  deployment_env: deployment_env,
   app_role: app_role,
   codex_session_id: System.get_env("CODEX_SESSION_ID", "not-configured"),
   map_tile_url:
diff --git a/config/test.exs b/config/test.exs
index 406a121..f068a23 100644
--- a/config/test.exs
+++ b/config/test.exs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import Config
 
 config :who_need_help, :handover_secret, "isolated-test-handover-secret"
+config :who_need_help, :deployment_env, :test
 config :who_need_help, :tracking_presence_cleanup_grace_ms, 100
 # Unit tests opt in to individual policies inside the relevant test. This keeps
 # unrelated examples independent from shared counters and mirrors the explicit
diff --git a/docs/verification.md b/docs/verification.md
index 1f55ca6..d250066 100644
--- a/docs/verification.md
+++ b/docs/verification.md
@@ -2322,3 +2322,33 @@ promoted.
   `cf7bacdf61ffb171ebac85e32dfcf12bc6972d59`; its application, database, and
   Mailpit remained healthy, and public readiness remained `ready`. The remote
   repository and hackathon-test deployment were not mutated.
+
+# 2026-08-09 local public search-discovery verification
+
+- The public home, Privacy Policy, Safety rules, and Terms of Service pages now
+  expose locale-aware canonical and reciprocal `en`/`uk`/`ru`/`x-default`
+  alternate links. Every other route defaults to `noindex, nofollow`, so
+  authenticated, support, legal, moderation, request, activity, profile, and
+  staff surfaces are not presented as public search results.
+- `/sitemap.xml` contains exactly twelve absolute entries: the four public
+  pages in each of the three supported locales. It contains no account,
+  request, activity, support, legal, moderation, notification, or staff URL.
+- `/robots.txt` is environment-aware. Production permits the public pages,
+  lists the private route families as disallowed, and advertises the absolute
+  sitemap URL. Development and test configurations return `Disallow: /`.
+- Nineteen focused controller tests passed against an isolated temporary
+  PostgreSQL database. The complete isolated quality/security gate then passed
+  455 ExUnit tests, all fourteen browser map-clustering tests, and every
+  configured compiler, formatting, xref, Credo, Sobelow, Dialyzer,
+  dependency, image, Compose, Helm, migration, rollback, and observability
+  check. The Debian 13.6 runtime-image scan reported zero detected
+  vulnerabilities.
+- The isolated quality unit
+  `codex-heavy-wnh-quality-seo-rerun-20260809-20260809-082004-916736.service`
+  exited with status `0` after 4 minutes 47 seconds and reported a 210.9 MiB
+  memory peak. Its run-scoped images, containers, networks, and volumes were
+  removed. Two older quality database volumes remain referenced by their own
+  stopped containers and were not changed by this verification.
+- This verification changed only the local checkout. The public Git remote,
+  production deployment, and frozen hackathon test deployment were not
+  changed.
diff --git a/lib/who_need_help_web.ex b/lib/who_need_help_web.ex
index b06699b..e9c44b6 100644
--- a/lib/who_need_help_web.ex
+++ b/lib/who_need_help_web.ex
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ defmodule WhoNeedHelpWeb do
   """
 
   def static_paths,
-    do: ~w(assets fonts images favicon.ico manifest.webmanifest offline.html robots.txt sw.js)
+    do: ~w(assets fonts images favicon.ico manifest.webmanifest offline.html sw.js)
 
   def router do
     quote do
diff --git a/lib/who_need_help_web/components/layouts/root.html.heex b/lib/who_need_help_web/components/layouts/root.html.heex
index 4b3ae0d..4041ae9 100644
--- a/lib/who_need_help_web/components/layouts/root.html.heex
+++ b/lib/who_need_help_web/components/layouts/root.html.heex
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
     <meta name="csrf-token" content={get_csrf_token()} />
     <meta name="theme-color" content="#047b68" />
     <meta name="color-scheme" content="light dark" />
+    <meta name="robots" content={assigns[:page_robots] || "noindex, nofollow"} />
     <meta
       name="description"
       content={
@@ -25,6 +26,12 @@
           )
       }
     />
+    <%= if canonical_url = assigns[:canonical_url] do %>
+      <link rel="canonical" href={canonical_url} />
+    <% end %>
+    <%= for {language, url} <- assigns[:language_alternates] || [] do %>
+      <link rel="alternate" hreflang={language} href={url} />
+    <% end %>
     <.live_title
       default="Who Need Help"
       suffix={
diff --git a/lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex b/lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex
index e0b3ba5..713fe0a 100644
--- a/lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex
+++ b/lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex
@@ -1,42 +1,60 @@
 defmodule WhoNeedHelpWeb.PageController do
   use WhoNeedHelpWeb, :controller
 
+  alias WhoNeedHelpWeb.SearchMetadata
+
   def home(conn, _params) do
-    render(conn, :home,
-      page_description:
+    assigns =
+      SearchMetadata.public_page_assigns("/")
+      |> Keyword.put(
+        :page_description,
         gettext(
           "Ask nearby volunteers for free medicine pickup or safe practical help, coordinate privately, and verify the handover."
         )
-    )
+      )
+
+    render(conn, :home, assigns)
   end
 
   def privacy(conn, _params) do
-    render(conn, :privacy,
-      page_title: gettext("Privacy Policy"),
-      page_description:
+    assigns =
+      SearchMetadata.public_page_assigns("/privacy")
+      |> Keyword.put(:page_title, gettext("Privacy Policy"))
+      |> Keyword.put(
+        :page_description,
         gettext(
           "How Who Need Help processes account, Google sign-in, location, communication, and safety data."
         )
-    )
+      )
+
+    render(conn, :privacy, assigns)
   end
 
   def safety(conn, _params) do
-    render(conn, :safety,
-      page_title: gettext("Safety rules"),
-      page_description:
+    assigns =
+      SearchMetadata.public_page_assigns("/safety")
+      |> Keyword.put(:page_title, gettext("Safety rules"))
+      |> Keyword.put(
+        :page_description,
         gettext(
           "Safety guidance for voluntary help, medicine pickup, roadside requests, location sharing, and in-person activities."
         )
-    )
+      )
+
+    render(conn, :safety, assigns)
   end
 
   def terms(conn, _params) do
-    render(conn, :terms,
-      page_title: gettext("Terms of Service"),
-      page_description:
+    assigns =
+      SearchMetadata.public_page_assigns("/terms")
+      |> Keyword.put(:page_title, gettext("Terms of Service"))
+      |> Keyword.put(
+        :page_description,
         gettext(
           "The conditions for using Who Need Help to coordinate voluntary help and social activities."
         )
-    )
+      )
+
+    render(conn, :terms, assigns)
   end
 end
diff --git a/lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/search_document_controller.ex b/lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/search_document_controller.ex
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6d7a4fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/search_document_controller.ex
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+defmodule WhoNeedHelpWeb.SearchDocumentController do
+  use WhoNeedHelpWeb, :controller
+
+  alias WhoNeedHelpWeb.SearchMetadata
+
+  @public_paths ["/", "/privacy", "/safety", "/terms"]
+  @locales ~w(en uk ru)
+  @private_prefixes ~w(
+    /account/
+    /activities
+    /admin
+    /analytics
+    /auth
+    /categories/proposals
+    /legal
+    /mobile
+    /moderation
+    /notifications
+    /people
+    /profile
+    /reports
+    /requests
+    /support
+    /users
+  )
+
+  def robots(conn, _params) do
+    body =
+      case Application.fetch_env!(:who_need_help, :deployment_env) do
+        :production -> production_robots()
+        _non_production -> "User-agent: *\nDisallow: /\n"
+      end
+
+    conn
+    |> put_resp_content_type("text/plain", "utf-8")
+    |> put_resp_header("cache-control", "public, max-age=3600")
+    |> send_resp(:ok, body)
+  end
+
+  def sitemap(conn, _params) do
+    entries =
+      for path <- @public_paths,
+          locale <- @locales do
+        sitemap_entry(path, locale)
+      end
+
+    body =
+      "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n" <>
+        "<urlset xmlns=\"http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9\" " <>
+        "xmlns:xhtml=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\">\n" <>
+        Enum.join(entries, "") <>
+        "</urlset>\n"
+
+    conn
+    |> put_resp_content_type("application/xml", "utf-8")
+    |> put_resp_header("cache-control", "public, max-age=3600")
+    |> send_resp(:ok, body)
+  end
+
+  defp production_robots do
+    disallowed = Enum.map_join(@private_prefixes, "", &"Disallow: #{&1}\n")
+
+    "User-agent: *\nAllow: /\n" <>
+      disallowed <>
+      "Sitemap: #{SearchMetadata.absolute_url("/sitemap.xml")}\n"
+  end
+
+  defp sitemap_entry(path, locale) do
+    alternates =
+      Enum.map_join(@locales, "", fn alternate_locale ->
+        ~s(    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="#{alternate_locale}" href="#{xml_escape(SearchMetadata.localized_url(path, alternate_locale))}" />\n)
+      end) <>
+        ~s(    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="#{xml_escape(SearchMetadata.absolute_url(path))}" />\n)
+
+    "  <url>\n" <>
+      "    <loc>#{xml_escape(SearchMetadata.localized_url(path, locale))}</loc>\n" <>
+      alternates <>
+      "  </url>\n"
+  end
+
+  defp xml_escape(value) do
+    value
+    |> String.replace("&", "&amp;")
+    |> String.replace("<", "&lt;")
+    |> String.replace(">", "&gt;")
+    |> String.replace("\"", "&quot;")
+    |> String.replace("'", "&apos;")
+  end
+end
diff --git a/lib/who_need_help_web/endpoint.ex b/lib/who_need_help_web/endpoint.ex
index d7bea78..9649878 100644
--- a/lib/who_need_help_web/endpoint.ex
+++ b/lib/who_need_help_web/endpoint.ex
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ defmodule WhoNeedHelpWeb.Endpoint do
     from: :who_need_help,
     gzip: not code_reloading?,
     only: WhoNeedHelpWeb.static_paths(),
-    only_matching: ~w(favicon manifest offline robots sw),
+    only_matching: ~w(favicon manifest offline sw),
     raise_on_missing_only: code_reloading?
 
   # Code reloading can be explicitly enabled under the
diff --git a/lib/who_need_help_web/router.ex b/lib/who_need_help_web/router.ex
index 5175859..ca9bc98 100644
--- a/lib/who_need_help_web/router.ex
+++ b/lib/who_need_help_web/router.ex
@@ -79,6 +79,8 @@ defmodule WhoNeedHelpWeb.Router do
   scope "/", WhoNeedHelpWeb do
     pipe_through :browser
 
+    get "/robots.txt", SearchDocumentController, :robots
+    get "/sitemap.xml", SearchDocumentController, :sitemap
     get "/", PageController, :home
     get "/feedback", FeedbackController, :show
     get "/privacy", PageController, :privacy
diff --git a/lib/who_need_help_web/search_metadata.ex b/lib/who_need_help_web/search_metadata.ex
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dbf0747
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/who_need_help_web/search_metadata.ex
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+defmodule WhoNeedHelpWeb.SearchMetadata do
+  @moduledoc false
+
+  @locales ~w(en uk ru)
+
+  def public_page_assigns(path) when is_binary(path) do
+    locale = Gettext.get_locale(WhoNeedHelpWeb.Gettext)
+
+    [
+      page_robots: "index, follow",
+      canonical_url: localized_url(path, locale),
+      language_alternates:
+        Enum.map(@locales, &{&1, localized_url(path, &1)}) ++
+          [{"x-default", absolute_url(path)}]
+    ]
+  end
+
+  def localized_url(path, "en"), do: absolute_url(path)
+
+  def localized_url(path, locale) when locale in @locales do
+    absolute_url(path) <> "?" <> URI.encode_query(%{"locale" => locale})
+  end
+
+  def localized_url(path, _unknown_locale), do: absolute_url(path)
+
+  def absolute_url(path) do
+    String.trim_trailing(WhoNeedHelpWeb.Endpoint.url(), "/") <> path
+  end
+end
diff --git a/priv/gettext/default.pot b/priv/gettext/default.pot
index 6969061..4dce6c3 100644
--- a/priv/gettext/default.pot
+++ b/priv/gettext/default.pot
@@ -1610,7 +1610,7 @@ msgid "Safety policy, category approval, account moderation, public launch, and
 msgstr ""
 
 #: lib/who_need_help_web/components/layouts.ex:191
-#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:25
+#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:36
 #: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_html/safety.html.heex:6
 #, elixir-autogen, elixir-format
 msgid "Safety rules"
@@ -1685,7 +1685,7 @@ msgstr ""
 msgid "Signal updated."
 msgstr ""
 
-#: lib/who_need_help_web/components/layouts/root.html.heex:48
+#: lib/who_need_help_web/components/layouts/root.html.heex:55
 #, elixir-autogen, elixir-format
 msgid "Skip to main content"
 msgstr ""
@@ -3395,7 +3395,7 @@ msgid "Privacy"
 msgstr ""
 
 #: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/google_auth_html/complete.html.heex:107
-#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:15
+#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:22
 #: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_html/privacy.html.heex:4
 #: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_html/terms.html.heex:75
 #: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/user_registration_html/new.html.heex:79
@@ -5442,7 +5442,7 @@ msgstr ""
 msgid "Restore request"
 msgstr ""
 
-#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:27
+#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:39
 #, elixir-autogen, elixir-format
 msgid "Safety guidance for voluntary help, medicine pickup, roadside requests, location sharing, and in-person activities."
 msgstr ""
@@ -5926,7 +5926,7 @@ msgstr ""
 msgid "Account settings control profile, location visibility, direct messages, and connected Google sign-in. Live tracking is optional and can be stopped. You may submit a"
 msgstr ""
 
-#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:7
+#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:11
 #, elixir-autogen, elixir-format
 msgid "Ask nearby volunteers for free medicine pickup or safe practical help, coordinate privately, and verify the handover."
 msgstr ""
@@ -6001,7 +6001,7 @@ msgstr ""
 msgid "Hosting, database, backup, transactional-email, and map-tile providers process the minimum data needed to provide their component of the service. External social-profile and thank-you links are controlled by their own operators and policies."
 msgstr ""
 
-#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:17
+#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:25
 #, elixir-autogen, elixir-format
 msgid "How Who Need Help processes account, Google sign-in, location, communication, and safety data."
 msgstr ""
@@ -6071,13 +6071,13 @@ msgstr ""
 msgid "Some safety, fraud, support, completed-help, backup, or legal records may need to remain, as explained in the Privacy Policy. Updated terms will be published here with a new effective date; material changes should be reviewed before continuing to use the service."
 msgstr ""
 
-#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:35
+#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:50
 #: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_html/terms.html.heex:4
 #, elixir-autogen, elixir-format
 msgid "Terms of Service"
 msgstr ""
 
-#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:37
+#: lib/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller.ex:53
 #, elixir-autogen, elixir-format
 msgid "The conditions for using Who Need Help to coordinate voluntary help and social activities."
 msgstr ""
@@ -6432,7 +6432,7 @@ msgstr ""
 msgid "Waiting for Android notification permission and token…"
 msgstr ""
 
-#: lib/who_need_help_web/components/layouts/root.html.heex:23
+#: lib/who_need_help_web/components/layouts/root.html.heex:24
 #, elixir-autogen, elixir-format
 msgid "Who Need Help connects adults who need urgent local help with nearby volunteers."
 msgstr ""
diff --git a/priv/static/robots.txt b/priv/static/robots.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 26e06b5..0000000
--- a/priv/static/robots.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-# See https://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html for documentation on how to use the robots.txt file
-#
-# To ban all spiders from the entire site uncomment the next two lines:
-# User-agent: *
-# Disallow: /
diff --git a/test/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller_test.exs b/test/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller_test.exs
index d18042c..1164de4 100644
--- a/test/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller_test.exs
+++ b/test/who_need_help_web/controllers/page_controller_test.exs
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ defmodule WhoNeedHelpWeb.PageControllerTest do
     conn = get(conn, ~p"/")
     html = html_response(conn, 200)
     document = LazyHTML.from_document(html)
+    endpoint_url = WhoNeedHelpWeb.Endpoint.url()
     [content_security_policy] = get_resp_header(conn, "content-security-policy")
 
     assert html =~ "Need help nearby? Ask the community."
@@ -18,6 +19,13 @@ defmodule WhoNeedHelpWeb.PageControllerTest do
     assert html =~ "Before you create a request"
     assert html =~ ~r/<title[^>]*>Who Need Help<\/title>/
     refute html =~ "Who Need Help · Who Need Help"
+    assert html =~ ~s(<meta name="robots" content="index, follow")
+    assert html =~ ~s(<link rel="canonical" href="#{endpoint_url}/")
+
+    for locale <- ~w(en uk ru x-default) do
+      assert html =~ ~s(rel="alternate" hreflang="#{locale}")
+    end
+
     assert content_security_policy =~ "default-src 'self'"
     assert content_security_policy =~ "script-src 'self'"
     refute content_security_policy =~ "script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'"
@@ -98,6 +106,13 @@ defmodule WhoNeedHelpWeb.PageControllerTest do
            ) == 1
   end
 
+  test "private and authentication pages default to noindex", %{conn: conn} do
+    html = conn |> get(~p"/users/log-in") |> html_response(200)
+
+    assert html =~ ~s(<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow")
+    refute html =~ ~s(<link rel="canonical")
+  end
+
   test "HTTPS content security policy permits only secure WebSockets", %{conn: conn} do
     conn =
       conn
diff --git a/test/who_need_help_web/controllers/search_document_controller_test.exs b/test/who_need_help_web/controllers/search_document_controller_test.exs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d2c101b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/who_need_help_web/controllers/search_document_controller_test.exs
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+defmodule WhoNeedHelpWeb.SearchDocumentControllerTest do
+  use WhoNeedHelpWeb.ConnCase, async: false
+
+  test "sitemap contains only absolute localized public URLs", %{conn: conn} do
+    conn = get(conn, ~p"/sitemap.xml")
+    body = response(conn, 200)
+    endpoint_url = WhoNeedHelpWeb.Endpoint.url()
+
+    assert get_resp_header(conn, "content-type") == ["application/xml; charset=utf-8"]
+    assert length(Regex.scan(~r/<url>/, body)) == 12
+    assert body =~ "<loc>#{endpoint_url}/</loc>"
+    assert body =~ "<loc>#{endpoint_url}/privacy?locale=uk</loc>"
+    assert body =~ "<loc>#{endpoint_url}/safety?locale=ru</loc>"
+    assert body =~ ~s(hreflang="x-default" href="#{endpoint_url}/terms")
+    refute body =~ "/users/"
+    refute body =~ "/requests"
+    refute body =~ "/support"
+  end
+
+  test "non-production robots blocks crawling", %{conn: conn} do
+    conn = get(conn, ~p"/robots.txt")
+
+    assert response(conn, 200) == "User-agent: *\nDisallow: /\n"
+    assert get_resp_header(conn, "content-type") == ["text/plain; charset=utf-8"]
+  end
+
+  test "production robots advertises sitemap and avoids private route families", %{conn: conn} do
+    previous = Application.fetch_env!(:who_need_help, :deployment_env)
+    Application.put_env(:who_need_help, :deployment_env, :production)
+    on_exit(fn -> Application.put_env(:who_need_help, :deployment_env, previous) end)
+
+    body = conn |> get(~p"/robots.txt") |> response(200)
+
+    assert body =~ "Allow: /\n"
+    assert body =~ "Disallow: /admin\n"
+    assert body =~ "Disallow: /requests\n"
+    assert body =~ "Disallow: /support\n"
+    assert body =~ "Sitemap: #{WhoNeedHelpWeb.Endpoint.url()}/sitemap.xml\n"
+  end
+end